Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Preservative chart download (free)!

As a thank you to my amazing readers for voting for our youth groups in the Aviva Community Fund competition, and as a thank you for those of you who have donated money for the e-books (Back to Basics or Hair Care Products), here's another free download - the preservative chart! I've tried to gather together some of the basic information you'll need to know about all the various preservatives available to us as homecrafters. It will be permanently located in the free downloadable PDF section if you need to download it again!

This is an amazing blog.so full of information.my question is that for preservatives I was only able to get methyl paraben and propyl paraben here in nigeria.will that be enough to preserve my cosmetic formulations?if so,at what quantities?

i could not be more excited to read your Blog. I would love for the presrvatives chart to get some updates on newer preservatives, the good, the exciting and new radish root type players, and the ugly nasty sensitizing /stay out of our skincare ones as well. I am a deeply committed and active member in a number of special preservative allergy groups, many of us can no longer tolerate any contact with most shampoos, conditioners and many skincare products due to our severe allergy to biocidal preservatives of the Isothiazolinone groups, so I must learn to make my own to stay safe and have skin on my hands and face and head. thank you for your work and your detailed writings. I so enjoy this blog. might the preservative chart receive some additions to research and explore? and I am ready to learn how to make a shampoo that will have NO allergens ... is it even possible??? I may be soon ready to find out. enough is enough from those shiny colored bottles of mysterious concoctions which leave my skin broken for months on end. cheers. Rebekah B.

ps. please do leave the MIT /Kathon CG / Microcare that contains any methylisothiazolinone from any cosmetic formulation recommendations, as Gavin mentioned them earlier... they've proven to be a real mess. I wouldn't leave them out of a chart, as they need to become well known as a group to move away from like a wildfire. I would give full attention to their disastrous effects , and offer crafters a solid understanding of their effects. I can share all of our research files with you as well as a site that can show thousands of human skin reaction pictures if you get interested . PS. sorry in advance for the thumbs down to first preservative systems on Gavin's comment in above comment for preservatives to add. They did work well in industrial settings before they entered cosmetics and baby wipes . ooops.

Hi Responseblogger. No, I don't think it possible to create anything that contains no allergens as someone is always allergic to something. As for updating the preservative chart, it's on a very long to-do list and probably won't happen in the near future. You can check out the preservatives section of the blog to see all the preservatives I've reviewed, which include the ones considered natural (which are not really standing up to long term usage and testing).

I'm always glad to hear about personal experiences with our ingredients! As you might have noticed, in the posts, I don't tend to inject my opinion: That's what the comments are for! I know which preservatives I like and don't like, but it's up to others to figure that out for themselves.

Susan-I've read all about preservatives here as well as your guest blog with Anne Marie from Brambleberry/Soap Queen. While Phenonip is probably best for most applications, the stigma is just too hard to get passed, deserved or not. In looking at the ingredients in companies like "Honest" (Jessica Alba's), I see Caprylhydroxamic Acid which sounds great, right? From coconuts so can't be bad! Do you know anything about it? I cannot find it for sale anywhere but wonder if it's worth the search. Any thoughts?

HI Michelle. There are dozens of preservatives you can choose from that aren't Phenonip or paraben based preservatives. Take a look at the preservatives section of this blog and see what works for you. I prefer liquid Germall Plus, which has no parabens.

Where an ingredient is derived from - like coconuts or sugar - has no bearing on what it ends up being. That ingredient is no more closer to coconuts than SLS, which scares everyone for no good reason. Don't look at what the ingredient is derived from; read what it is in the end and what it does for your products.

As for the Honest company...Take a look for their recent problems with using SLS when they claimed all over the place they didn't use it. (I don't care if they do, but it's completely dishonest to claim you don't use something, then use it in a large amount!) I don't really trust that company all that much.

In your chart, you identify Suttocide A which contains Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate as a formaldehyde releaser. This is not really accurate. While it is true, it can break down into formaldehyde, it does not mean it will. There is the possibility of reaction, but unlike Urea, which will always break down into formaldehyde regardless of the concentration, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate only is likely to at concentrations of 1% or higher. The current legal limit for use in commercial cosmetics is a 0.5% concentration, and as the concentration drops, the reaction of formaldehyde release drops exponentially. At a 0.5% concentration, the compound will break down into formaldehyde 0.04% of the time (1 application out of 2500 applications). You would need to use a finished formula every day for 7 years before risk of reaction would be a concern. If the finished formula uses the most common concentration found commercially of between 0.2% and 0.4%, then the risk drops even further, to 0.005% of the time (1 application in 20000 applications). This means in the real world application: a user would have to use the finished product, containing Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate, every day for 57 years before there was a statistical risk of formaldehyde release reaction, making it pretty much zero chance. Simply keep it less than 0.5% in your final formula.

Hi Keyboard Samurai. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do talk about formaldehyde donors in this post, but more information is always I better, I say.

As a note, I hope no one is taking away from any of this that I have an issue with formaldehyde donors in any way. I don't. I love liquid Germall Plus, which could be a formaldehyde donor. And that I'm saying there's anything wrong with these kinds of preservatives, as that's not the case!

Hi Susan,Thanks so much for your information. I am a bit confused by different preservatives. I have been using potassium sorbate as my sole preservative but my lotion went bad after 2-3 weeks which left me no choice but to throw it away. I read from LotionCrafter than potassium sorbate should be combined with other preservative,Do u think it's the reason why my lotion turned bad so easily?

What's more, LotionCrafter also suggests using potassium sorbate with phenoxyethol, do u suggest that ?

If yes then what's the % of both preservatives? Since phenoxyethanol can be used at 0.25-1% and potassium sorbate 0.1-0.5%, then does it mean that I can use 1%+0.5% for the combined preservatives? Thanks so much for your help!!

Hi Renee. I encourage you to take a look at the preservatives section of the blog for more information. Potassium sorbate isn't a complete or broad spectrum preservative. Yes, I think the reason your lotion went bad is because you didn't preserve it properly. I think Lotioncrafter's suggestion is a good one. You have to pair potassium sorbate with something else to make it work.

I encourage you to visit the preservatives section of the blog to see how much of each you should be using. Yes, you can use 1.5% combined preservatives in your product.

I'm a newbie to diy lotions and was wondering why you did't mention NeoDefend on your list of preservatives. I did a lot of research on preservatives and ended up buying NeoDefend. I'm hoping that I didn't make a mistake??????!!!!!!

Help! Ok, I see your preservative chart and I read the Brambleberry interview regarding Optiphen. I also read the article- Optiphen revisited. I am confused as the chart was not update. Bottom line, Can you use Optiphen in sugar scrubs??????

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Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?